Helen Clarke the Prime Minister ofNew Zealand, Ministers of the New Zealand and Australian Governments, other distinguished guests and particularly the serving men and women of the defence forces of our two nations, ladies and gentlemen.
I join the Prime Minister of New Zealand in expressing my honour in participating in this very important ceremony. Speaking from ANZAC cove during the Gallipoli campaign an Australian poet soldier remarked : "we can hear a gentle sobbing from the south". He was undoubtedly speaking of the sense of shared grief held by so many people in our two nations during that terribly costly campaign.
First and foremost, but not only, this is a memorial to those men and women of Australia and New Zealand who in various conflicts have given their lives for their countries and also for a set of ideals that we have in common.
It is also a reminder of the strength of our contemporary relationship. I remarked earlier today that there are no two countries in the world that share a closer association than do Australia and New Zealand. It is an association of history. It is an association of the mingled blood of the sacrifice of so many young of our two countries.
It is also an association which has been built on common values. Those common values took us together to the beaches of Gallipoli. Those common values led us to fight the Nazis and the Japanese in World War ll. Those common values took us to other theatres of war since. And those common values have us working together to keep the peace and to build a new nation today in East Timor.
And I well remember the remarks of General Cosgrove and others at the time of the INTERFET operation when they expressed their absolute pleasure that first and foremost they would have at their side the men and women of the defence forces of New Zealand.
So today my fellow Australians and my friends from New Zealand, I express on behalf of the people of Australia our gratitude for those young of our two countries who have sacrificed so much to give what we have today. I honour the close bonds between our two nations. Not only built on history and common contemporary interests but also shared recreation and shared contemporary values. And we also in a sense dedicate this memorial to the future strengths of a relationship that will always be important to our two countries. Whatever history may deal to us in the future nothing can separate us, our destiny will forever be together and we'll forever share this part of the world and we'll forever share a common set of values that mean so much to all of us.